CBS and Time Warner Cable Are Talking

Time Warner Cable says it’s talking with CBS Corp. again, almost a week after talks broke down and the retransmission dispute between the two companies escalated to a blackout of CBS properties on TWC systems, Bloomberg reports.

In an email today, TWC spokesman Bobby Amirshahi reportedly said: “Our negotiators are communicating.” A spokesperson for CBS did not respond immediately to a request from Bloomberg for a comment on the story.

Since the blackout began Friday, CBS and TWC have waged a high-profile public opinion campaign. "The two companies have largely made their arguments via the press, with Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt publicly offering to sell CBS’s networks to customers a la carte — a system that would let subscribers decide which of the channels they wanted individually. CBS called the proposal a ‘scam,’” the story reports.

At issue in the dispute are the fees CBS charges to retransmit its programming over Time Warner Cable systems, along with various side-issues such as the streaming of content over the Internet.

"The parties had a discussion last night, said Martin Franks, a CBS executive vice president, as he answered questions at a New York City Council hearing today," Bloomberg reports. "The meeting addressed the effect of the blackout on consumers."